PLATE LXXII. 
8. FOREST STYRE. 
[Syn : Stire; Stirom.~\ 
A fine old Gloucestershire cider apple, extensively cultivated on the thin light limestone soil 
of the Forest of Dean. Its origin is lost. It is mentioned by Philips the cider poet. 
“ Stirom firmest Fruit, 
Embottled (long as Priameian Troy 
Withstood the Greeks) endures, e’er justly mild. 
Softened by age, it youthful Vigour gains, 
Fallacious drink ! Ye honest men beware !” 
Philips “ Cyder” 
Description. —Fruit: below medium size, roundish, inclining to oblate, regularly and handsomely 
shaped. Skin : pale yellow, with a blush of orange on the side exposed to the sun, and numerous 
small russet spots, scattered over the surface. Eye : small and closed, with short obtuse segments, 
and set in a narrow basin, more or less plaited. Stalk : short, in a narrow deep cavity, lined with 
russet throughout, and which spreads from it over the base of the apple. Flesh : yellow, dry and 
harsh. Juice : small in quantity, pale straw colour, changing to deep amber, with a remarkably 
sweet luscious flavour and some astringency. 
The chemical analysis of the fresh juice by Mr. G. H. With, F.R.A.S., gave the following 
results :— 
Density of the fresh filtered juice ... .... .... 1*073 
Ditto ditto after 24 hours’ exposure ... ... 1*074 
One hundred parts of the juice by weight yielded of— 
Sugar ... ... ... .... i4 , ooo 
Tannin, Mucilage, Salts, &c. ... ... ... 3*300 
Water ... ... ... .... 82700 
“ The Forest Stire ” says Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight, “ is almost universally supposed to 
afford a stronger cider than any other kind of apple.” Ide found its specific gravity to be as high 
“ as 1 '076 to 1*081 according to the soil it grows in.” 
The trees grow with numerous upright shoots, like a pollard willow, and are not renowned 
forbearing well. Marshall in his “ Rural Economy” (1796) speaks of this variety as decaying 
rapidly. 
There are but very few trees left in Gloucestershire at this time, and it will be a special 
object of the Woolhope Club to have it propagated. 
